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26 Feb 2012 11:25

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Politics: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer endorses Mitt Romney for president

Brewer, whose profile grew significantly as a result of her stances on immigration, says that she likes Mitt’s business background and says that the race will effectively be over after Super Tuesday. Arizona’s primary is Tuesday. (photo by Gage Skidmore) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jun 2011 17:07

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Politics: McCain worried about “isolationism” in GOP circles

  • Old school vs. new school: “He [Reagan] would be saying: That’s not the Republican Party of the 20th century, and now the 21st century. That is not the Republican Party that has been willing to stand up for freedom for people for all over the world.” Senator John McCain is right to warn of an “isolationist” streak growing within the GOP, as the default political positioning of the party is now simply the opposite of whatever President Obama supports. Therefore, as Obama continues to wage war (and enter a new foreign conflict in Libya), suddenly the “war party” of the last decade is tilting towards giving peace a chance. This strikes a violent discord with old hands in the GOP, McCain predictably among them — and will continue to cause internal strife for Republicans. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jan 2011 23:05

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Politics: Max Headroom: TweetDeck an unofficial “Meet the Press” panelist

  • The TweetDeck in the room: For their Egypt roundtable today, Meet the Press decided to take a cue from the CNN playbook and stick social media on a giant TV screen within plain sight. Surprisingly, Chuck Todd, Harold Ford and company weren’t completely distracted by this and had something pretty intelligent to say about Egypt. David Gregory’s intro was a weeeeeeeee bit forced, though. Next time, leave the innovative gimmicks to Jake Tapper … oh wait, he doesn’t have a show anymore. 🙁 Carry on.
  • Egypt: An excuse to drill in the gulf Look, it’s understandable that you feel that oil drilling should be allowed in the Gulf Coast, Rep. Jeff Landry of Louisiana. It was the first thing we thought of, too. But, you know, think this can wait a week? Maybe two? This is so close to the edge of the crisis that it seems a little insensitive.
  • Behind the scenes of al-Jazeera Commotion. Guy futzing with non-working cell phone. Hard work to ensure that al-Jazeera doesn’t go off the air in Egypt. What might surprise is that even they sound surprised at how strong the protests in Egypt were – and Ayman Gaballah, the guy talking, says they had word that this might go down!
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jan 2011 01:26

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Politics: Max Headroom: Andrew Wakefield denies autism study fraud

  • The autism/vaccine guy speaks out: In recent weeks, Andrew Wakefield’s name, already synonymous with a questionable autism study from over a decade ago, has been dragged through the mud further amid reports that the report is an elaborate fraud. He still stands behind his study, claims the reporting of Brian Deer was completely, utterly wrong, and emphasizes that he did not personally profit off the study as reported. Credit to Alisyn Camerota, who hits him pretty hard with questions the whole way through. It’s weird that this interview isn’t getting much attention at the moment. (Note: He said he was going to upload some proof to his blog, but we see absolutely nothing new there.)
  • Shouting at your laptop If you’re like us and do searches on newsworthy political topics on YouTube every once in a while, you might run into this guy. This guy, a conservative, likes yelling really quickly. it’s his whole schtick. Here, he’s yelling about Keith Olbermann. He’s like a combination of Billy Mays (God rest his soul) the Micro Machines guy, and Rush Limbaugh. Mostly Rush.
  • Backed into a birther corner On “Meet the Press,” our boy David Gregory was chattin’ up our good friend Eric Cantor, basically trying to get him to say something bad about birthers. Cantor, eventually realizing that he couldn’t weasel out of Gregory’s line of questioning, gave him a half-answer on the question. Honestly, Cantor was right the first time. Why are we talking about this still?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

04 May 2010 10:21

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Politics: Times Square incident: Sunday talk shows rife with speculation?

  • When they say it’s certainly a one-off, it’s an appropriate question to say, ‘How do you know that; was this based on real briefings?’ To me, the most basic question in journalism is, ‘How do you know that?’ They won’t always tell you, but you can gauge a lot by their response.
  • Columbia University graduate journalism Professor John Dinges • Regarding the seemingly knowledgeable responses of leaders on the Sunday talk shows about an incident that happened just the night before. Many of them – including New York Sen. Charles Schumer and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano – spoke of the incident as if they had the evidence to say it was a lone wolf incident, at a point when investigators were still working. While each claimed later that they had been briefed about the incident beforehand by authorities, it still raised a lot of questions, especially since the investigation was just beginning. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Feb 2010 23:37

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Politics: Max Headroom: Mitch McConnell swears on live TV. Awesome!


  • Skip to the 2:00 mark Mitch McConnell said a lot of stuff about health care and how he hates the Democrats in this interview on “Fox News Sunday,” but we only heard him say one word. And yes, it’s a profanity. Way to go, Senator! You’re a regular Rahm Emanuel!

  • Mike Pence can’t spell On “Meet the Press,” Rep. Mike Pence manages to get past the creepy guy at the 5 second mark to complain about the upcoming health care summit, which he claims the Democrats will spell S-E-T-U-P. Wait a second …

  • Bayh a “corporatist”? On “Larry King Live” the other night, Bill Maher said some damning things about Evan Bayh. “He’ll become a lobbyist now, which is what he was before.” Oof! The meat is in the first minute and a half, but the rest is good, too.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Feb 2010 20:36

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Politics: Max Headroom: A bunch of financial guys hit the Sunday shows


  • “I Won’t Close the Door” Sarah Palin’s answer here sounded kinda vague, but read between the lines – it’s clear she’s been thinking about it. Come on. She’s already thinking like a presidential candidate. Whatevs.

  • The old financial dudes Today on “Meet the Press,” Henry Paulson and Alan Greenspan try to analyze the recession and the job market. Greenspan suggests tax cuts to drive economic activity that encourages job creation.

  • The new financial dude Timothy Geithner, Paulson’s replacement as treasury secretary, says we’re seeing some “encouraging,” though uneven, signs of growth in the economy. He says a double-dip is unlikely.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

10 Jan 2010 22:49

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Politics: Max Headroom: Ahnold still feels aftershocks from “True Lies”


  • RNC VS. DNC: RAWR On “Fox News Sunday,” pretty much the only news show worth watching nowadays if you’re being sarcastic, DNC chair Tim Kaine and RNC chair Michael Steele took on the Harry Reid thing. And they both answered as you’d expect, really. Michael Steele comes off as a douche.

  • Painting: terminated When California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks, paintings fall down. Was it perhaps a result of the aftershock of speaking to the effervescent David Gregory, or maybe the Eureka quake last night? Either way, we’re freaking amused, just like David Gregory.

  • Bad point, bob A week ago, we were giving CBS’ “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer credit for making a pretty spot-on point about the political echo chamber. How does he follow up? Well, by talking about what we could learn from dogs. Uh, WHAT?@! This is an e-mail chain letter.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Sep 2009 20:52

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Politics: Max Headroom: Right-wing conspiracies and radical revolutionaries

  • Clinton’s conspiracy Bill Clinton thinks Obama’s facing a right-wing conspiracy, he claimed on “Meet the Press.” He says it’s not as big as it was when he was president, but it’s more vicious.

  • Clinton’s conspiracy Bill Clinton thinks Obama’s facing a right-wing conspiracy, he claimed on “Meet the Press.” He says it’s not as big as it was when he was president, but it’s more vicious.

  • Fawning over a pimp James O’Keefe is in disbelief that his ACORN-trashing videos had such a massive impact. He describes himself as a “radical revolutionary” on Fox News.

  • Clinton’s conspiracy Bill Clinton thinks Obama’s facing a right-wing conspiracy, he claimed on “Meet the Press.” He says it’s not as big as it was when he was president, but it’s more vicious.

  • Fawning over a pimp James O’Keefe is in disbelief that his ACORN-trashing videos had such a massive impact. He describes himself as a “radical revolutionary” on Fox News.

  • Robert Gates is safe When George W. Bush was still president, the defense secretary had a “countdown clock” on his desk. It’s gone now. He’s there as long as he wants to be.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Sep 2009 22:55

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Politics: Max Headroom: Obama was on a lot of Sunday talk shows

  • Avoiding ACORN While admitting that what he saw on the prostitution video was distasteful on ABC’s “This Week,” we’ve never seen Obama so quick to avoid answering a question, ever.

  • Avoiding ACORN While admitting that what he saw on the prostitution video was distasteful on ABC’s “This Week,” we’ve never seen Obama so quick to avoid answering a question, ever.

  • On health care’s tone Why is the health care debate so vitriolic? On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama attacks the 24-hour news cycle, saying that controversy the media’s driving factor.

  • Avoiding ACORN While admitting that what he saw on the prostitution video was distasteful on ABC’s “This Week,” we’ve never seen Obama so quick to avoid answering a question, ever.

  • On health care’s tone Why is the health care debate so vitriolic? On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama attacks the 24-hour news cycle, saying that controversy the media’s driving factor.

  • No Illegal Immigrants On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Obama says illegal immigration is an enforcement issue – one easily solved by verification. There’s a nice rip on the GOP at the end.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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